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Clarence Martinn
04-15-2018, 12:55 AM
Well, my the new boiler is not working right. Last repair, was because a large infeed or outfeed copper pipe developed a crack in the pipe, and the weld job the heating contractor did , didn't hold up. Muddy water leaked out of either the crack or the faulty weld. They came in to fix that. Then, they fiddled with the electronic control. They set it to ECONOMY. That's fine . But, last night, I had to turn the Boiler off at the Circuit Breaker panel, because when I tried to turn it off on the Thermostat , the Boiler would start up for 5 minutes , then shut down for 9 Minutes, Then do the same thing all over again. I turned the Thermostat down to 48 last night when the room temp was 75. I had it at 65 for the night when I noticed the 10 degree difference. After listening to it do the on off thing for about an hour, I just shut it down at the breaker.


Fast forward to today.....

Turn the boiler on at the Breaker. It seemed to work fine, but after Supper , I noticed the temp going up. Yes, I used the oven. But, that does not explain why the Boiler started doing the same thing after Supper tonight. I checked the Radiators. They are the old 1920 something American Cast Iron Radiators. None had air in them. But, the Bedrooms and the Bathroom Radiator are all stone cold. Only water comes out , no air. I turned the Thermostat in the Hall to the off position. As for Zones, I turn the Thermostat on , and all the Radiators get hot water at the same time. ( At least, they did when it was working right! )

Any idea what is causing this, and how to fix it ? The Boiler went through 3 , YES, three !! Taco Circulator Pumps in a matter of 3 Months. Burned one out after another . Repairman must have been out here 5 times so far, doing repairs on a NEW BOILER !:mad:

Lee Schierer
04-15-2018, 2:24 PM
I would advise you to immediately call the manufacturer and explain your series of problems. I have heard similar instances of problems with heating units where the factory sends out a factory technician to resolve the problems. It sounds like your series of problems might qualify for that type of support.

Tom Stenzel
04-15-2018, 7:28 PM
Hi Clarence,

I've got some experience with steam systems, not so much with pumped hot water. But it's going to be just about impossible to give an intelligent guess as to what the problem is with the info given.

My unintelligent opinion: Your boiler is working fine. It sounds like it starts up when the water's cold and shuts off when the water is hot. Boilers do things like that.

You have a system problem. When a zone thermostat is satisfied and no longer calls for heat, does the zone valve really close? There are limit switches inside the valve operators, do they work? Were they ever wired right in the first place? Does the circulation pump shut off if the zone valves are all closed? Does it ever stop?

If no thermostat is calling for heat all the zone valves should be closed. See which one or more of the zone water lines continue to stay hot when they shouldn't. That's a pretty good indication there's flow where it's not needed.

It's my understanding if there's no zone calling for heat and the zone valves are all closed the circulation pump will be off and the boiler burner is disabled [Edit: if the boiler also supplies house hot water it doesn't shut down]. It doesn't sound like that's happening. That is a problem external to the boiler, the manufacturer won't be responsible for those problems unless they were involved with a whole system upgrade.

The worst possible situation is if someone bodged up the wiring or put jumpers in to get some heat when some part was broken. A serviceman can burn up a lot of time having to track down problems like that. Especially when he/she isn't really expecting it.

A guy I worked with was working on a steam boiler installation in a commercial building that was being rehabbed. Being an older building the HVAC system was all pneumatic. The general contractor working on the rooms cut through the tubing that ran in the walls in several places. When the boiler was started it worked fine but the heat went nowhere. The customer was screaming. The customer was told by the boiler installation company: We're going home, it's not in our scope of work.

That isn't where you want to be.

Anyways, lots of luck. It's been an annoyingly cold spring.

-Tom

Bill Dufour
04-15-2018, 11:13 PM
What fuel or is this electric? A fuel burner may run a purge fan before lighting and continue to circulate coolant when the fire dies to extract heat for a while while the firebox cools.
Bill